Ofcom's General Conditions: a plain-English reference

Section 45 of the Communications Act 2003 lets Ofcom set conditions that bind the companies they apply to, and section 46 lets a general condition apply to every provider of a communications network or service, or every provider of a particular type. Ofcom says UK providers don't need a licence: they're authorised to operate subject to these conditions. So the same rules bind a household name and a small local full-fibre network, though some paragraphs only cover certain services, such as voice calls.

The conditions come in three parts: Part A, network functioning (including A3, emergency access); Part B, numbering (including B3, number portability); and Part C, consumer protection: C1 contracts, C2 published information, C3 billing, C4 complaints, C5 vulnerable and disabled customers, C6 caller ID, C7 switching and C8 mobile sales.

Providers must let everyone call 999 and 112 free (A3.4) and, where technically feasible, pass on the caller's location, which for a fixed line means at least the full postal address (A3.5 and A3.6). They must take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency services as part of any voice service (A3.2). If your calls run over the internet (VoIP, which is how digital landlines work), the provider must tell you "in plain English" that emergency calls may fail in a power cut or if your connection drops, during the sale, in the terms and in any user guide (A3.3).

GOV.UK says most customers are expected to have moved to digital landlines by the end of January 2027, and a digital landline won't work in a power cut without backup. Under Ofcom's guidance on this duty, providers should have at least one way to reach emergency services for at least an hour in a power cut, free for people at risk because they depend on their landline, such as a battery back-up unit if you have no mobile or no signal. If that's you, ask your provider what it offers.

C1 follows the life of a contract and is the condition you'll lean on most.

C2.3 requires providers to publish their contact details, service descriptions, tariffs (including usage, access, additional and equipment charges), standard contract conditions including length and early termination charges, how disputes are resolved, and their compensation and refund policies.

These published pages are where you find costs a headline monthly price doesn't show. Our guide to what comparison results do and don't show lists what to look for, and our broadband providers hub links to each provider's page.

• Accuracy: a provider can't charge you unless every amount "does not exceed the true extent" of the service actually provided (C3.2), and must keep records proving it for at least 12 months (C3.3).
• Billing information: free on request, detailed enough to check your charges and monitor usage (C3.7); a reasonable fee is allowed if you want it as a printed bill (C3.9).
• Privacy: calls and texts to 999, 112 and "free to caller" numbers, including helplines on them, must not appear on itemised bills (C3.10).
• Arrears: steps to get payment or disconnect must be proportionate, come with due warning, and, except in cases of fraud, persistent late payment or non-payment, be confined to the service concerned as far as technically feasible (C3.11). Providers must publish these measures in plain English and send you a free copy on reasonable request (C3.12).

Citizens Advice warns that if you keep not paying, a provider might restrict your service (for example to emergency calls only), disconnect you, use a debt collector or go to court, so talk to it early. See struggling to pay your broadband bill and, if you're considering a formal debt solution, what bankruptcy, a DRO or an IVA means for your broadband.

C4 requires every provider to follow a Customer Complaints Code meeting the Ofcom Approved Complaints Code, keep records of complaints, belong to an approved alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme, follow its final decisions, keep ADR free for you and mention the scheme on bills (C4.2 and C4.3). The approved code adds:

• At least three ways to complain: a free or geographic-rate phone number, a UK postal address, and email or a web form (para 4).
• Prompt information about the process and timeframes once you complain (para 6).
• A complaint can be treated as resolved if you're told the outcome and don't say within 28 days that it's still unresolved (paras 9 and 15), so reply in writing if it isn't.
• An ADR letter, in plain English on a durable medium, naming the scheme and saying ADR is free, as soon as the provider won't do more and you're still unhappy (paras 11 and 13). This is often called a deadlock letter.
• Six weeks: for complaints first raised on or after 8 April 2026, an ADR letter is due if the complaint is unresolved six weeks after the provider first received it (para 12, as amended). Earlier complaints keep the eight-week wait. If you get a deadlock letter sooner, you can go to ADR straight away.

If you can't get through to your provider at all, see how to contact your broadband provider.

Providers must publish and follow clear policies for treating fairly customers whose circumstances may make them vulnerable (C5.2), covering situations such as age, disability, illness, low literacy, communication difficulties and bereavement, how your needs are recorded and how you can contact them (C5.3), with trained staff (C5.5). For disabled customers specifically:

• An approved text relay service (C5.8), and free emergency video relay for British Sign Language users (C5.11 and C5.12).
• Priority fault repair for a genuine urgent need on a fixed line, at no more than the standard charge (C5.13).
• A free nominated third party to receive or help pay your bills, without becoming liable (C5.14).
• Contracts, summaries, notices and bills free in a format you can use, such as large print or Braille (C5.15 and C5.16).

See broadband support for disabled customers and, if a relative signed up to a contract they couldn't understand, our guide to contracts signed without mental capacity.

C6: caller ID must be provided and on by default unless that isn't technically feasible or economically viable, and you must be told if it isn't available (C6.2 and C6.3). For silent or abandoned calls, see silent and abandoned calls on your landline.

C7, switching:

• One Touch Switch: when you switch home broadband or landline at the same address, you don't have to contact your current provider or get its consent, and switching is free (C7.19 and C7.20). Since 12 September 2024 you contact only the new provider; your current provider must send you the switching information, including any early termination charge. Moving home follows separate rules (C7.28 and C7.29).
• Switching information must be accurate, neutral and on a durable medium, including what moves, the effect on other services, the total due on the switch date as one figure, equipment return costs and your right to compensation (C7.12, C7.13 and C7.25).
• Little downtime: your service should carry on through the switch, unless that isn't technically feasible, and any loss of service must not last more than one working day (C7.4). The switch should happen on the date you ask for where technically possible (C7.3), and the new provider leads it (C7.5).
• No double paying: your old contract ends on the day the switch completes (C7.7), and you pay nothing for any remaining notice period (C7.8).
• Your number: porting with no direct charge, available for at least a month after your contract ends unless you agree otherwise (C7.6).
• No slamming: the new provider must take all reasonable steps not to switch you without your express consent (C7.9).
• Compensation for switching failures and missed service and installation appointments, paid within 30 calendar days; none if an appointment was moved with 24 hours' notice or you agreed a same-day change (C7.47 to C7.49).

For porting your number, see keeping your landline number.

1. Find the condition that fits. A wrong charge is C3.2; a change without proper notice, C1.14; being blocked, passed around or repeatedly pressed to stay after you've made clear you want to cancel, C1.8; no power-cut warning on a digital landline, A3.3.
2. Complain in writing through one of the three channels the provider must offer. Name the condition, quote its words and say what you want: a credit, a refund, a corrected bill, release from the contract.
3. Ask for what the rules already give you: free billing information (C3.7), accessible documents (C5.15), the debt policy (C3.12), the complaints code (para 18), or switching information (C7.12).
4. Diary the dates. Six weeks after you first complained (eight for complaints raised before 8 April 2026), or sooner with a deadlock letter, you can go to ADR.
5. Report wider problems to Ofcom. Complaints can lead to an investigation, as with the Virgin Media case above, but Ofcom can't investigate individual complaints, so keep your own case going with the provider and ADR.

Example wording to adapt (a template, not a real case): "My bill dated [date] charges [amount] for [service], which I did not receive. General Condition C3.2 says a provider must not charge more than the service actually provided. Please remove the charge, confirm in writing and send my billing information under C3.7."

If you'd rather move, check your end date and any exit fee in your contract summary, then compare broadband deals at your postcode. We don't switch you or give legal advice: deals come from a comparison partner, and you sign up with the provider you choose, which must follow every condition above.